Top 10 Tuesday: Best Racing Games

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What are the top 10 best racing and driving games of all time? Here are our favorites.

By IGN Staff

Welcome to IGN's new weekly countdown of the exceptional, fascinating and absurd, something we like to call Top 10 Tuesday. Every week we'll feature the top ten games, characters, fashion statements or whatever else we can think of that in some way relates to gaming and its history. And just because it's called Top 10 Tuesday doesn't mean it's always going to be a list of the best - we like to razz on stuff just the same as we praise it. From counting down the best consoles ever to revealing the worst use of fish heads in a videogame, this is where it's at.

Today's Top 10 focuses on the top 10 racing and racing action games on consoles, in the arcades and on PC. Our efforts culminated in a wide range of final selection, which unfortunately didn't include some of the better racers in the bunch, but such is the folly of a top 10. The games we included were picked with innovation, influence, nuance, style, and technology in mind, and we picked both the height of some series, while selecting the first of others and provided reasons for our decisions.

10. R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (PlayStation)

Namco's Ridge Racer series was a seminal influence when it ushered in the original PlayStation back in 1995. SEGA and Namco battled back and forth for years with continual updates, sequels, and variations on the themes, but from where we stand, while Ridge Racer 1 and 2 might have been the most influential, R4 is the one we would return to playing today. R4 was the best and most refined of the series and, before Polyphony Digital rewrote the book on all racing games, it represented the height of arcade games in its day.

9. Super Sprint (Arcade)

One of the first arcade racing games that was genuinely good, Championship Sprint gave us physics and gravity, serious skill-based gameplay, and one helluva great steering wheel. This coin-op game also gave way to bigger and better games (like, for instance, RC Pro-AM (NES)), but we'll have to go with the original on this one.

There has been a garage of great PC games over the years, and around this office the general consensus is that the most memorable one is Midnight Madness 2. Of course, people are going to disagree, but we can't pick them all, it's a top 10! This series introduced great networked gameplay, offered superb graphics for its day, and was an influential racing game, later mimicked in the form of Rockstar's illustrious Midnight Club series among others. The multiplayer functionality created many late-night sessions in the IGN offices. Plus many work days were ruined because it lives up its name.

7. WipEout XL (PlayStation)

While WipEout was the first and the original, WipEout XL was the quintessential PlayStation 2 racer. It sported better designed tracks, refined controls, enhanced graphics, sweet new weapons (rockets and the Earthquake), 12 ships instead of four, and it boasted that mix of kick-ass tunes (The Prodigy, Underworld, The Chemical Brothers) in addition to original 3D gameplay. It was original, fun as hell, and the game to play on PS2. Yes, WipEout 3 might be your favorite (and please don't bring up the PS2 version), but Psygnosis's second take was our favorite.

6. Road Rash (3DO)

This was a tough one to pick (especially because in a controversial move this took Pole Position's spot), but it had to be done. No matter who you talk to, what age you were, and no matter the system, Road Rash was the kind of game people loved like a best friend. The game mixed violence and humor with solid racing, crazy-fun attacks, and exotic locales. We picked the 3DO version because it was beautiful and super fast, representing the height of the 16-bit Road Rash design on a "next gen" system (we so miss you Trip Hawkins&#Array;). Last, it packed a smoking hot soundtrack featuring Soundgarden.

5. Daytona USA (Arcade: 8-way arcade LAN version)

"Go easy on the car!" SEGA's original Yu Suzuki-developed arcade racer was the undisputed arcade king in its day (1995), even after Ridge Racer hit the streets. This coin-op offered gamers that instant sense of command and one helluva powerslide. It also provided a handful of good tracks, a great sense of speed, and superb cheats (remember the horse racing cheat?). But it was Suzuki's ambitious multi-player linked system that blew everybody away and was a technical feat in its day.

Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo is a ground-breaking, influential and, one could even say revolutionary, racing series. The first GT changed the way every single racing developer thought about his games. The first and second games set the stage on the 32-bit systems, and on PS2, Gran Turismo 3 A-spec blew the game out with extensive cars lists, gorgeous visuals, new modifications, linked racing, and superb, skill-based gameplay. The game could easily take 100 hours to beat, but interestingly enough collecting cars became just as important (if not more important) than the racing itself. GT3 broke into the mainstream, getting non-gamers into the swing of things.

While every developer on the planet was itching to take on Polyphony's GT series, the mad Brits at Criterion took a simple concept (driving cars really fast and crashing them), and rewrote the book on arcade games in the process. Burnout 1 and 2 set the stage (while under Acclaim's belt), but it was with the marketing power of Electronic Arts that Burnout 3 hit its stride. The marketing didn't make the game better (it just helped sell the game to the masses), it was Criterion's constant refinement, superb technology, and dedication to tough AI, super-addictive crash courses, and Road Rage mode that made it so damn fine.

2. Super Mario Kart (Super NES)

What is there to say that hasn't been said about Nintendo's unequalled blend of genius fun and innovation, epitomized by Mario Kart on Super NES? Nintendo's Mario Kart embraced the company's colorful characters in a smart mixture of combat and racing that started a sub-genre. Yes, the rubber-band AI was annoying, but the level of depth, the tight controls, the great game modes (time trials, and especially Battle Mode) brought the game to life. Pure, unadulterated fun.

Creating a top 10 list is always going to be controversial and there is no doubt many people will disagree with this top pick. Of all the racing games we've played, however, none match the technological prowess, imagination and innovation of Wave Race 64. The first of its kind, Nintendo's wave runner/jet ski game is still unmatched, despite the four or five attempts to better it. The water physics were integrated into the core of the racing, enabling players to ride wave crests when the waves were high, use the swells and the tides to their advantage, or to skim effortlessly across a clear, glass lake like an ice skater on fresh ice. The ramps and tricks added a great twist, and the dolphin code was the icing on the cake.